March Meetings
At our meeting on March 6th the speakers were Mark Stevens and Edward Irving from Octopus Investments, specialists in investing in renewal energy infrastructure.
Mark and Edward described the current energy mix in Australia and the transition to renewable energy technologies, such as two large scale renewable energy plants, Dulacca Wind Farm in SE Queensland and Darlington Point Solar Farm in SW NSW, as coal is retired from baseload energy production. In Australia it is predicted that solar, wind and battery storage will be the dominant sources of energy and already these account for 40% of supply. Gas will play a role inthe transition away from coal. They described a return on investments in renewal energy can realise a return of ~10%. A lively Q&A followed the presentation.
Lucy Collins who our club sponsored to the January National Youth Science Forum in Brisbane was our speaker on march 20th. Currently in year 12 studying mats-science subject Lucy has hopes of studying engineering.
Lucy pictured with President Bob Newman
She was one of 200 students from across Australia attending NYSF and lived on the campus at University of Queensland Brisbane for the for nine day forum.
Of the many experiences she highlighted "hands on" experience playing with technology, using microscopes and visits to University of Technology and Integrated Pathology Centre. On online meeting with engineers from NASA was inspiring as one of the speakers was a women who had graduated from Melbourne.
A debate on the use of AI and the effect addressed the effect on this technology on personal relationships and the economy. Meeting with science professionals by "speed meetings" was an opportunity to discuss career pathways.
Lucy expressed her appreciation of the support she received from the club to attend this forum which inspired her to aim high and also to meet and make friends with people having similar interests.
Next year she hope to be a volunteer during the program.